Marc Finks
Module 3, Unit 1, Activity 3
During the past two decades, brain research by neuroscientists
has had a direct influence on new teaching theories about how students can best
learn and what we, as teachers, can do to improve our classrooms and teaching
styles in order to benefit our students. The Sonomo County of Education has established
twelve principles that form the basis of brain-based learning according to the
Talking Page Literacy Organization (2014).
The first principle states that the brain is a parallel processor, which means that thoughts, intuitions, pre-dispositions, and emotions operate simultaneously and interact with other modes of information. According to Marilee Springer (2013), music has a direct effect on the emotions of students and should be used as part of the classroom environment (p.35). In the classroom teachers should play different kinds of music at different times in the class, for example, low classical music during reading time, or fun, bouncy pop music that the students can sing along to when they work in groups and need to be more active and awake.
The second principle states
that learning engages the entire physiology, which includes how well the
students eat and how much they sleep. While teachers can’t necessarily control
the amount of sleep students, besides offering suggestions to parents during
one-on-one meetings, we can make design activities that require students to get
out of the chairs quite often. We could have students act out scenes from books
while reading them, or have them measure something on the playground, and or
challenge them to activities that require them to be active in the classroom.
The third principle states that
the search for meaning is innate, which means students need to have a chance to
reflect on what they’ve learned. It’s important to let students write journals,
or even have them fill out exit-cards (Springer, p.49-50) that allow them to
think about what they’ve learned. Keeping an online journal would make it
easier for both the student and the teacher to access it.
Principles four and five
state that the search for meaning occurs through patterning and that emotions
are critical to patterning. It’s important for teachers to try and make sure
that their lessons are thematically connected across different subjects. It’ll
help students better connect and remember the content. Meanwhile, besides
playing music, students’ emotions are also affected by group work, and teachers
should make an effort to organize students in groups where they feel relaxed
and safe, yet also respected.
Principle six states that every brain simultaneously perceives and creates parts and
wholes. Instead of just teaching to right-brain or left-brain, it’s best to
understand that it’s best to activate the entire brain at once. This ties into
principle four, but teachers should try to incorporate cross-disciplinary
lessons, where students learn about art and math simultaneously, or music and
science.
Principle seven
states that learning involves both focused attention and peripheral perception.
Basically, this means that it’s important for our classrooms to be rich
learning environments. Instead of just reading about World War II, have
students reenact the movement of armies using an online Risk game and talk
about how things could’ve been done differently. Engage students with projects
that involve doing research in the community and interacting with people
outside of the classroom.
Principle eight
states that learning always involves conscious and unconscious processes. This
ties back into allowing the students opportunities to reflect upon what they’ve
learned, and giving them chances to internalize new information and later show
what they have learned through different varieties of output.
Principle nine
states that we have at least two types of memory -- a spatial memory system and
a set of systems for rote learning. Most of our students have smart phones that
they can use to take photos. A photo scavenger hunt, where students must find
things from a list, take their photo with it, and then have them later write a
journal about how and where they found certain items, and it means to them,
could help achieve this principle as well as several others.
Principle ten
states that the brain understand and remembers best when facts and skills are
embedded in natural spatial memory. This means that we learn best when our
learning involves our environment. For a lesson on rainforests, the teacher
could talk about it, have students watch videos and do research, and then have
them try and recreate a rainforest in the classroom somehow.
Principle eleven
states that learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat. This
goes back to making the classroom a safe environment, which comes from giving
positive feedback to the students, and always being aware of the shifting
social situations in the class. Once the students feel like they can trust one
another, which could be done by setting up an Edmodo site and having students
have discussions and share ideas in a controlled environment, then their
collaborative work should improve as well.
Principle twelve
states that each brain is unique. Basically, students all learn in different
ways, and with ready access to the various form of media, we should try different
ways and formats to teach information to our students. Whether it means playing
music or watching videos from Youtube, or doing an online mental puzzle, or even
reading an e-book, all students can learn. It’s up to us to figure out how to
use the tools that are available to us.
References:
Springer, Marilee (2013) Brain-based Teaching in the Digital
Age. Retrieved on February 18, 2014
fromhttps://www.aa.edu/ftpimages/109/download/ABCs_XYZs_Sprenger.pdf.
Talking Page Literacy Organization. Retrieved on October 18,
2014 from http://www.talkingpage.org/artic011.html.
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